UK Ministry of Defense staff have landed themselves a £271,000 bill after making incessant phone calls to the national Directory Enquiries service, according to new figures. That equates to some 186 times a day.

A new Freedom of Information request has revealed that ministry
staff made 158,640 requests to ‘118’ numbers – which put callers
in touch with directory services – since the last parliamentary
election in 2010. This means that on average, MoD staff would
have to be calling the service about 186 times a day.

Staff from the UK’s Department of Work and Pensions called the
same Directory Enquiries service 97,265 times over the same
period, at a cost of £72,387 to taxpayers, according to figures
obtained by Sky News.

“Calls to Directory Enquiries from the majority of the 260,000
MoD fixed phone lines are banned, but some staff working in
isolated locations, who do not have access to a military phone
network or the Internet, are able to call directory enquiries to
obtain contact details,” an MoD spokesperson said.

“Calls…from fixed phone lines have fallen by over 75 per cent
in the last four years and we are working to further reduce the
number of calls made.”

The news comes amid cuts in defense spending of 8 percent, with
the army planning to cut 20,000 jobs and the air force 10,000. On
Saturday, the Daily Telegraph cited military sources as saying
that an “overzealous” austerity drive was also leaving the
armed forces without vital equipment.

In August, it was revealed that MoD staff spent about £40,000
calling the UK’s speaking clock – a recorded message that gives
the exact time to the second – 158,640 times in the previous two
years. The MoD introduced a ban on ringing the service last year.